Story Highlights

I am the "woman who interrupted" at the Oct. 28 Marsha Blackburn rally at CabaRay in Nashville.

Yes, I interrupted during her moment of silence, saying that “Marsha Blackburn is a white supremacist.”

I interrupted because as a registered nurse, mom of five, wife of one of those first responders who must see, process and live with the incidents of violence that she and extremists like her are inciting.

I can’t stay silent any longer.

I wasn’t hired by anyone, certainly not the Democratic party, and I wasn’t part of any group.

I drove from Chattanooga to hear and see first-hand the rhetoric of fear and discrimination, and, yes, to hopefully tell her what I thought of her role in blocking healthcare access for poor, working Tennesseans — something I’ve seen the grave consequences of as a hospital nurse.

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

African American students were targeted

And what I saw from the outset of the event was more disturbing than I had anticipated. I saw young African-American students — who were hard not to notice, since they were virtually the only non-white people in the room — approached by a large man with an earpiece and asked to leave.

When they asked why, because they really were just sitting peacefully listening to the pre-rally entertainment, he answered simply, “because you’ve been asked to.”

Police were called and the African-American students were handcuffed, escorted out, and brought to the back seats of police cars.

They never disrupted the event.

They never rushed the stage or punched or screamed — lies from Blackburn’s own social media. They were profiled and harassed and I hope the video of the incident continues to be disseminated to prove it.

Originally published in 2012. After Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Museum Store Sunday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, the bills are bound to catch up with you. The cartoonist's homepage, citizen-times.com/voices-views David Cohen, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz has been head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky since 2007. The cartoonist's homepage, courier-journal.com/opinion Marc Murphy, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier Journal